Birch Creek Capital hires head of research

Philadelphia-based investment management firm Birch Creek Capital hired Loren McDougall as head of research.

McDougall will wield her experience with high-yield credits to help Birch Creek launch high-yield separately managed accounts.

"We're still a pretty small firm and that's always been very intentional," Tyler Wynn, Birch Creek's founder and chief investment officer, said in an email. "When you're small, every addition matters and we've been looking and searching for a good, seasoned, high-yield analyst for quite some time."

McDougall, who's spent 16 years in municipal asset management, stood out for her experience with complex credit situations and her analytical skills, Wynn said. McDougall's first day at Birch Creek was Nov. 3.

Birch Creek has been offering SMAs for two years, Wynn said, and has seen success and growth through the product.

So far, the firm's SMAs have concentrated on distressed issuers, Wynn said. McDougall will lead Birch Creek's efforts to expand in the performing and liquid high-yield market.

"One area of growth that we see is an SMA product in performing and liquid high yield, but also one that mixes distressed and that performing high yield," Wynn said. McDougall's role is "designed to expand on that platform as well as complement our existing credit fund that we've been managing for about 14 years now."

McDougall joins Birch Creek from Northern Trust Asset Management's municipal bond group, where she contributed to strategic growth initiatives, according to Birch Creek's press release. Before that, she was a vice president and municipal high yield research analyst at PIMCO, where she focused on healthcare credits.

McDougall began her career in 2009 with Wasmer Schroeder; when the firm was acquired by Charles Schwab Asset Management, she led the merger of the SMA credit research process.

Birch Creek is smaller than Northern Trust (NTRS), which Wynn said was part of McDougall's motivation for joining.

"I think that one of the things that appeals to her is the ability to have a bigger voice and impact with a smaller firm," Wynn said. "I think she was drawn to the pace of a smaller firm, and the [ability] to move more quickly on credits."